Another Chance At Love
by SilverCloud3
Summary: Aria and the Liars are in college and they thought they escaped A when they left Rosewood... but A always finds her way back. This story follows the TV series plot only.
1. Chapter 1

"A"nother Chance At Love

Aria and the Liars are in college and they thought they escaped A when they left Rosewood... but A always finds her way back. This story follows the TV series plot only.

The forest was dark, damp and cold. A hooded figure was approaching her, and she didn't know where to run. She saw a path to her left and sprinted, hoping to outrun the hooded figure. She ran for what seemed like miles until she came across a river. There was a body doing the dead's man float. She laughed when she realized it was Ezra.

"Okay joke's over, you got me. Nice touch wearing the black hood."

The body didn't move.

"Ezra?" she asked. "Ezra!" she screamed.

The hooded figure appeared in front of her, floating on the water.

"You thought you could escape me, couldn't you?"

Aria awoke with a start, sweating and panting. The sun was pouring out of her window and she relaxed when she realized it was just a dream. She looked at her alarm clock and saw that it was 7:30. _Damn it_, she thought. _I hate waking up before my alarm._

She rolled over and faced the rest of her room. She saw her roommate, Jane, fast asleep in her bed. Aria was jealous of her. She never had problems sleeping through the night.

She sat up and checked her phone. No messages. She was hoping to hear from Ezra or Hanna, they were usually her good morning texts. She sighed and stood up, undressing and grabbing a towel from the laundry basket. She wrapped herself in the towel and grabbed her shower caddy and room key, and walked out of her room. She walked down the hall toward the bathroom, not knowing that today would be one of the worst days she's had in a long time.

Ezra sat at his desk, watching his 8am class take their first exam of the semester. Half of the students looked worried while the other half seemed like they would fall asleep any second. He didn't blame them, Shakespearean Plays wasn't the most exciting class on campus.

His phone buzzed and he flipped it open. It was a text from Byron.

_How do you like living in Seattle?_

Ezra tried to think of a good lie. He hated lying to Aria's parents. It was her idea in the first place though...

_Aria was banging furiously on Ezra's apartment door. "OPEN UP! HURRY" she yelled._

"_God she is impaitent," Ezra muttered as he jogged over to open the door. He swung it open and she was jumping up and down smiling while holding a huge envelope. He took it and looked at the return address: Los Angeles. His heart skipped a beat._

"_Aria! It's a big envelope...you got in!" He smiled._

"_I know, I know but I wanted to open it with you!" The excitement in her eyes was something he could not bare. It was just too good. _

_He handed it back to her. "You do the honors."_

_Aria ripped it open. A bunch of papers fell to the floor, but Ezra saw the one she was looking for. He picked it up and handed it to her. _

"_Dear Ms. Montgomery, we are very pleased to inform you that YOU HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES OH MY GOD!" _

_Aria screamed the last part and jumped into Ezra's arms. He picked her up and twirled her a few times. "I better call the University and tell them I accept their job offer. Two weeks is a long enough wait for them!" Ezra said. _

_Aria watched him excitedly. "Yes hi, may I please speak to someone in the Human Resources Department at the University of Southern California? Yes I'll hold."_

_Aria knew that the news of Ezra leaving Rosewood for L.A. the same time as her would be suspicious and she already worked out the perfect lie. She just had to convince Ezra to go with it. Somehow._

"Professor Fitz! Professor Fitz!"

Ezra snapped back to reality as he realized one of his students was calling his name. A girl in the front row was raising her hand and smiling politely. He erased the text from Byron and walked toward her, wondering if he would get to see Aria today.

"So tell me about your friends again, I keep forgetting stuff, you know me, absent minded," Jane said over breakfast in the cafeteria, trying to make conversation.

Aria used her fork to play around with her scrambled eggs. She wasn't really in the mood for talking, her dream was beginning to bother her. She didn't want to be rude though, so she took out her phone and flipped through pictures until she found one she liked.

"The blonde one is Hanna, she's my best friend and she's going to NYU. The next is Spencer, she's at Harvard, and Emily is at Texas A&M."

"What about the one on the end?" asked Jane.

"What do you mean?"

"The other blonde. Not Hanna. She's next to Emily." Jane pointed to the picture.

Aria didn't even realize Alison was in this picture. Her heart started pounding and she didn't know what to say. She wasn't ready to tell everyone in her new life about Ali.

"Oh... That's Ali."

"Where does she go to school?"

"She doesn't."

"Is she taking a year off? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, something like that." Aria half smiled and stared down at her food.

"I love hearing all of your stories from high school. Philadelphia seems so much cooler than San Francisco. My school was so boring."

_You have no idea how not boring Rosewood was for me_, Aria thought. "I don't live in Philly. Rosewood is in the suburbs."

"Oh, right." Jane muttered. She then started talking about how her strict Chinese parents never let her have any fun. Aria wasn't really listening. Her thoughts went back to Rosewood, to the two years when her and her friends were tormented by A. Half the reason she even considered moving to L.A. was to get away from A.

Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Ezra.

_Dinner tonight? Koreatown?_

Aria smiled and accepted the invitation.

"Come on let's go to Psychology, it's almost 9," Jane urged.

"Right. Class," Aria laughed and stood up looking out at the campus around her. The string of palm trees leading to the building her and Jane's Psychology class was in reminded her that she was far away from Rosewood, far away from bad memories. And that was enough to get her through each day.

If you like this, please tell me so I continue it. If not, I won't worry about it. Also does anyone know how far UCLA and USC are from each other? I've never been to L.A. so I don't know how close Aria and Ezra would live from each other. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter is finally written. Sorry for the long wait.

After a long day of lectures and note taking, Aria was looking forward to her dinner date with Ezra. She walked quickly back to her dorm to get ready. She had a good hour or so before she had to leave and she was hoping to catch up on some homework.

When she entered the room, she noticed Jane wasn't there. Jane didn't have any late classes on Wednesdays and she was usually back before Aria. At that moment, her phone buzzed. Expecting it to be Jane, she was surprised to see that it was Hanna.

_iChat, 5 mins? :)_

Aria smiled. She couldn't remember the last time she saw Hanna's face. The homework would have to wait until tomorrow.

She threw her books on her bed and sat down at her desk. It was then that she realized there was a note:

_Studying in the library, be back late, love Jane_

"Sucks for her," Aria said aloud. She threw the note aside, turned on her laptop, and called Hanna.

A few seconds later, Hanna's face came on the screen. Aria suddenly wished Hanna was right there next to her, not three thousand miles away.

"Hi love bug!" said Hanna, while waving.

"Seeing you now makes me realize I'm a bit homesick," Aria gushed.

"A bit? Try a lot! You're all the way in California!"

"I know. It didn't seem that far away until now. I can't believe I've been here a whole month."

"Me neither! The leaves in New York are starting to change and it's getting chilly out. You should see Central Park. It's beautiful in the fall."

"It's fall?"

"Yes dummy, since like last week."

"Well how should I know, it's always summer here," Aria joked.

"Yeah that's true! Ugh I don't know if I can take this anymore, being apart from you, Emily and Spencer," sighed Hanna.

"Hmm... well Thanksgiving is coming up! And then Christmas break... Hey! Maybe we could plan a Spring break trip? Just us four?"

"Love it! I'll start googling right now!" Hanna loved shopping, whether it was for Coach purses at the mall or for vacation deals online.

"Okay...so how's things with Caleb?"

Over an hour later when the girls were done talking about Ezra and Caleb, Aria's phone rang. "Just a sec Han...hello?"

"Hey. You ready?" It was Ezra.

"Fuck. Uh yeah almost. Han I gotta go." She blew Hanna a kiss and exited iChat.

"I made the reservation for seven so if you wanna beat the traffic you're gonna have to leave in five minutes," stated Ezra.

"Okay okay, text me the address." Aria hung up and ran to her closet and started throwing clothes everywhere. Ten minutes later, she was running across the parking lot, praying to God for a miracle, asking for no traffic in LA tonight.

Ezra sat in his office, texting Aria the address. He had been at work all day, grading exams during his breaks so that he wouldn't have to do them tonight. And apparently, Aria had forgotten about their date. He shook his head and smiled, not understanding how her mind worked but loving her anyway.

He began to pack up his briefcase when his phone rang. Wondering who could be calling so late, he glanced at the caller ID: Ella. Fuck. He can't ignore both her and Byron. Reluctantly, he answered the phone.

"Hello?" Ezra tried to sound as casual as possible.

"Hi Ezra, this is Ella. I was just calling to see how things were going at your new job." She sounded concerned.

"Hey Ella, it's going really well. I'm loving all of my classes, thanks for asking."

"You're sure you're not lonely out there?"

"No I'm making new friends."

"Oh good. I'm always wondering the same about my Aria. I don't know if I told you but she just started her first semester at UCLA."

Ezra panicked for a second, than gained composure. "Oh did she? Wow that must be exciting. I'm sure she's fine, she's a very outgoing girl." He cringed at his own awkwardness.

"Yeah I know but that's what mothers do, they worry."

"Yeah, listen I got to go I have a meeting to get to."

"Alright it was nice talking to you, take care."

Ezra hung up and took a huge breath. Not so bad, he thought. He finished packing up his office, and headed out the door.

Aria sat in bumper to bumper traffic on the 405 Freeway. She only hoped that Ezra wouldn't be pissed at her when she showed up late. She turned off the music and listened to only the sounds of the night. She tried to be peaceful and calm instead of what she really was, edgy and in a hurry.

She jumped when her phone rang. She looked around for any cops and saw none, then reached in her bag and answered the phone.

"Yeah?"

"What was that all about? We were in the middle of a long overdue conversation and you ditched me!"

"I'm sorry Han. Oh crap you just reminded me I didn't tell Jane where I was going. Let me text her. Once second... Ok what?"

Hanna sighed. "You ditched me."

"Oh right. Yeah I'm meeting Ezra for dinner at a Korean restaurant and I lost track of time talking with you, sorry."

Hanna sighed. "It's okay bestie. I've done that to Caleb with Mona a few times," she giggled.

Aria smiled. "I can only imagine." Her phone beeped.

"Hey my mom's on the other line I'll call you tomorrow okay?"

"Ok bye hun."

"Bye...Hey mom."

"Hi honey are you? I miss you."

"I'm fine, I can't really talk right now I'm heading out to dinner with Ez- uh Esther, my new friend from um, my English class."

"Oh how nice. Well don't let me spoil your night. Oh by the way I talked to Mr. Fitz and he's enjoying his new job in Seattle, I just thought you'd like to know."

"Oh that's good, I'll text you later, I gotta go bye love you." She hung up and threw her phone onto the passenger seat, the traffic had finally started moving.

Ezra stood outside the restaurant, waiting. It was 7:05 and in ten minutes they were going to lose their table.

"Come on Aria," he mumbled under his breath, right before her car pulled up. He smiled at her and she waved and parked her car behind his. A flash in the corner of his eye caused him to look up. Across the street some tourists were taking pictures of the scenery. A few feet away from them was a hooded figure dressed in black, staring at him. Ezra stared back, wondering what this guy's problem was. Aria walked up and hugged him and he tried to ignore the guy for a moment.

"Oooo I missed you, what has it been, a week?" Aria gushed and squeezed him tight.

"I missed you to babe. Let's get inside so we don't lose our table," he said with a smile. "After you." Aria walked in behind him and he looked up again. The mystery man was smiling under his hood and looking at... Aria. Ezra had a bad feeling about it, but he didn't want to worry her. Probably just a pervert walking the streets of LA, happens all the time...right?

"Hey, what's wrong?" Aria called to him.

"Nothing, nothing... just some creep staring at you," he said.

Aria looked suddenly worried. "Who?"

"I don't know it's probably nothing. Come on let's get inside."

Aria looked over his shoulder, scanning the busy street. She looked more concerned then he thought she would be. "Don't worry about it," he reassured her.

"Yeah," Aria said, in a far away voice, like her mind was somewhere else. They both walked inside, hand in hand, trying to forget about the mystery man.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm sorry for the long wait. I haven't had inspiration for this and have been busy with other things but Chapter 3 is finally here! Enjoy.

Aria entered her building, not really sure how her body was able to walk around. Her head and heart have been pounding for the last hour and her mind was all over the place. She couldn't remember how she managed to drive back to campus from Koreatown. As she walked up the stairs to her second floor dorm room, her mind only thought of one thing. Actually, one person.

A.

Aria kept replaying the night's events in her head over and over as she entered her room and tried to focus on homework. It was no use. Jane was already sleeping so Aria gave up and went to bed. There was no way she could actually sleep, she was still replaying everything in her head...

_Aria couldn't help but laugh at Ezra. He looked so silly, wearing a bib while eating his dinner. _

"_Stop it Aria, you know I'm foolish with my chopsticks," smiled Ezra._

_Aria laughed even harder, her food almost falling out of her mouth. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket but ignored it. There was no one who could interrupt this perfect night she was sharing with Ezra._

_Well, one person could. She couldn't get that guy out of her head, the one Ezra supposedly said was staring at her. It was probably nothing, but she couldn't help but think, what if A found her here? She tried so hard to push that thought to the back of her mind. She was still laughing at Ezra but she felt like her laugh was just starting to become forced because of these thoughts. _

"_Is everything alright? Your faced just changed," said Ezra._

"_Yeah, yeah, I just suddenly thought of something not funny."_

"_Like what?"_

"_It's nothing. Hey, do you want dessert?"_

"_Don't change the subject. What's bothering you?"_

"_I just thought about the guy outside. You said he was staring at me. Stuff like that is kinda scary, since I just moved to a new city all by myself," Aria gushed._

_Ezra smiled. "You're not by yourself, you have me and all you're new friends. And besides, I'm sure he was just people watching. I do that when I'm bored sometimes."_

_Aria forced a fake smile. "Yeah you're right," she said. Her thoughts of course were the complete opposite. 'You have no idea what A is capable of,' she thought to herself._

_A while later as Aria and Ezra walked out of the restaurant, Aria was relieved to see that no one shady was watching her from anywhere on the street._

_Forgetting that her phone had vibrated before, Aria pulled it out with the intention of letting Jane know she would be home soon. The home screen was blinking with a new text message from a blocked number and she completely forgot about Jane._

_Her heart skipped a beat, and she opened the text. Aria's face fell as she read the message._

'_Running away to California with your boytoy won't work sweetie, I'm still here. Better hope Mommy and Daddy don't find out about what you've done. A.'_

_Terror filled her instantly. She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. But she had to get out of that neighborhood, fast._

"_My mom wants me to call her so I'm gonna head back, bye," she said quickly to Ezra with a kiss on the cheek, while dashing to her car. Ezra stared bewilderedly behind her, wondering what got into Aria sometimes._

There was no way she was getting any sleep tonight and she couldn't deal with this alone. She had to send out an S.O.S. She grabbed her phone from her beside table, and started a group message with Emily, Spencer, and Hanna. It took her a few minutes to decide how she would word everything, and with trembling fingers, she told them about the text from A.

_Hey guys, I know it's late, but something big just happened. I just got this text..._

Aria then forwarded the girls A's text. She stared at her phone waiting for a reply. There was no way she could function normally until she got some reassurance from her best friends. Finally, five minutes later, she got a text.

_Spencer: How could this be? There's no way A followed you to Cali!_

Aria breathed a sigh of relief. Someone to talk to about this. Finally.

_Aria: I don't know Spence, I'm really scared._

_Spencer: Can you trace the number?_

_Aria: It was blocked, so no._

_Spencer: Maybe Caleb can help, hopefully Hanna gets these texts soon._

_Aria: Yeah. What time are you available tomorrow? Can we please group iChat? I need to talk to all three of you._

_Spencer: Anytime after 5, eastern time. I'm not sure about Hanna and Emily._

_Aria: Okay tomorrow night is good. I'm gonna try and get some sleep. But I doubt it will happen._

_Spencer: Same here. Call me or text me if anything happens! No matter what. I love you._

_Aria: Thank you Spence, I love you too. Night._

Three thousand miles away, Aria's parents were fast asleep in their bed, when both of their cell phones went off. Ella being extremely tired, simply rolled over and went back to sleep. Byron on the other hand was curious as to who was texting him at this hour of the night. He grabbed his phone and flipped it open, gazing at it with one eye open. What he saw made him open his other eye, and completely forget about the fact that he was just asleep a few minutes ago.

There on his home screen, was a picture of Aria and Mr. Fitz having dinner together in a restaurant, with their hands intertwined in a loving way.


End file.
